God suffers and grieves because man rejects his unconditional love. When God created the world He was in perfect relationship with man. There was no fear, no doubt or pain, but seamless harmony. Adam and Eve were in communion with God. Love was not selfish, but reciprocal between the divine and humanity. It was a world of peace and wholeness, nothing was lacking. However, mankind willfully chose to doubt and fracture their relationship with God through their disobedience. No longer is there harmony, but dissonance. No longer is there peace, but a quaking fear of the other. No longer is there joy, but intense suffering and pain. God suffers the pain of being hurt by the beloved, the suffering of rejected love. He is deeply wounded by man’s betrayal because He withheld nothing from His beloved (Gen. 6:5-6,Ps. 78:40). God cannot remain unaffected by our sin because He is a person in a shatteringly close relationship with humanity. The communion between God and man is so tightly woven together that it would be impossible for one to remain unaffected by the other.
Sin severs and corrupts relationships. No longer does man reciprocate the love of God, but consumes it. People crave for the blessings of God, but with egotistic motive. Men hunger for love, but reject a relationship with God out of fear and selfishness. God first loved mankind to foster communion, a relationship governed by reciprocal love. He does not love for the sake of love, but for the sake of the other. When reciprocal love is quenched and suffocated by sin there is disharmony, misery and loneliness. The “other” is consumed by the “I”. Human beings are inward, self-conscience, defensive, and depressed because they are consumers of love instead of self-sacrificing donors. Man’s sin deprives God of His glory and the love He merits.
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